In this portrait, Kathryn sunbathes on the rocks at Freshwater Beach. She rests in a relaxed pose, caught in a quiet moment of introspection as she draws her knee gently toward her cheek.
Edward drew inspiration from Pablo Picasso’s Old Guitarist, particularly the way Picasso arranged the composition using elongated forms, the bowed head and the lifted shoulder, to create emotional tension. Echoes of this approach appear in Edward’s painting through the tilted head and her feet reaching toward the edges of the frame, playing with scale to stretch and anchor the body within the composition.
He rendered Kathryn using loose brushstrokes and gentle palette knife marks to capture the skin tones, folds, and natural curves of her. The use of contrasting light and dark tones adds weight and presence to the figure, grounding her within the sunlit rocks.
There is a quiet moment of revery in the artwork that speaks more about Kathryn that was not foreseen during the photoshoot. Perhaps it speaks to how people present themselves on the surface, open and at ease, until they break this moment and express something deeper. Not necessarily darker but more meaningful, more layered and richer in expression.
